Sports research opens doors for charity

Monday 10 September 2018

Sports experts at the University of Wolverhampton are supporting a local charity to change the lives of young people in Birmingham.

Sport 4 Life UK provides opportunities for disadvantaged young people aged 12-29 to prepare for and move into sustained education, employment or training by improving their employability and life skills through sports themed personal development services.

The University has worked with the charity for the last five years, and is now helping them to monitor and evaluate the impact of their work in the community.

Sport 4 Life UK believe that every young person should have the opportunity to create a greater future for themselves. The charity’s latest Impact Report was released on 5 September 2018 and features key facts and figures validated by a team at the University’s Institute of Human Sciences.

These include that Sport 4 Life UK has engaged with 1,532 young people in the last year alone. Other figures include that 306 young people involved in Sport 4 Life programmes gained at least one accredited qualification and 126 achieved a sustained job outcome.

Richard Medcalf, Director of the University Institute of Human Sciences, said: “The University is delighted to be working with Sport 4 Life UK to help them develop effective ways of measuring and communicating the great work they do.

“Through its partnership with the University and our sports courses, Sport 4 Life UK is better able to evidence the impact of the amazing work they are doing for the benefit of young people in Birmingham.

“The health benefits of sport are well known, but there are also wider social outcomes as well. Sport is a great vehicle to create positive employment opportunities for people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). Enabling the charity to provide validated data as evidence for the work they do puts them in a strong position when applying for public funding.”

The University has funded a studentship for a PhD student to work with Sport 4 Life UK to improve how they monitor and evaluate data to measure the impact of sport on individuals.

Students on sports courses at the University also complete a module focused on monitoring and evaluation in sport development.